When to Service Your Shocks
When should you have your shocks serviced or checked? This is one of the most common questions we get here in the Speedway Motors Shock Department. Usually, it is pretty evident to the customer if they have a bent shaft, their shock has a dead spot, the seal is leaking oil, or the body has a rather large dent in it. Those are some of the most easily noticeable indications that they need checked out or serviced. For the people who ask the question and are unsure, we like to tell everyone to service shocks about every 20-25 races.
Just like an engine, the oil in a shock heats up to high temps and breaks down, and after so long you have to change the oil. When shocks heat up, the oil will break down and they will start to lose number or soften up. What that means is the oil starts to break down after being heated up and cooled down from use. For example, a shock that once had 75 pounds at 3 inches on compression starts to soften up and after say 25 races is now at 60 pounds at 3 inches, therefore feeling softer to the racer.
It is different for every racer as some racers may only race 20-25 races a season and can sometimes make it through a whole season. That is if things don't get torn up and they can make it without having to have them serviced. On the other hand, some can race up to 60-70 races a season and should have them checked accordingly. That 20-25 races does not necessarily mean you won’t have something go wrong with your shocks. If you think there is an issue with your shocks, you can bring it to us here at Speedway Motors or ship it to us and we can dyno them. The dyno fee is $10 a shock.
When a customer brings in or ships us their shocks we will look them over to see if they are able to be dyno'd, if they need attention or see if the customer is wanting something done different, like revalving the shock. Depending on what we decide or see we will put together a quote of where the customer will be price wise on servicing or dynoing all or some of the shocks.
The shock techs will dyno the shocks that can be dyno'd, then we will call the customer and let them know what we have found and what it’s going to take to get their shocks back to where they need to be. With the customers' approval, we will then go ahead and get into the shocks and replace any old seals and parts that are needing to be replaced. Every shock that is serviced or revalved will go back together with new oil and will be dyno'd again to make sure it is back to factory specs or to the customers' specs.
After being serviced or revalved, the shocks will get washed and labeled with the customer number and shock ID as well as the valving number(s) or which corner the shock goes on depending on what the customer requests. Lastly, we will call the customer and let them know their shocks are done and ready for pick up or shipped back.
Here at Speedway we service and revalve the following brands of shocks:
- PRO
- AFCO
- Bilstein
- Ohlins
- QA1
Below is a picture comparing old / used shock oil vs what the new oil going back in looks like.
If your shocks need to be serviced, check out our Shock Tech page for more information.